Cunk on Earth, Netflix
It’s hard to resist the irreverence of this enjoyable parody documentary series. Actress Diane Morgan is fantastic as upstart journalist Philomena Cunk. Naïve and ill-informed, she receives a host of experts – real ones, those! — to tell us about the world in the style of a BBC documentary. The clash between its shortcuts and a priori and their science sparkling with intelligence and relevance produces powerful, funny and irresistible sparks.
The candidate, Tou.tv
The spur to this delightful series is the surprise election of Ruth Ellen Brosseau, but the rest belongs entirely to the spicy Alix Mongeau. Actress Catherine Chabot is brilliant as a single mother called to take up a profession, that of a deputy, for which she was not at all prepared. The learning of this resourceful pole candidate is astounding by appealing to the heart as much as the head. It’s funny, touching, true, like everything the author Isabelle Langlois touches.
Looking good, Télé-Québec
We could summarize this gem (Student Prize for best short series at Canneseries) by the tribulations of four young adults at the end of their tether: the quartet sharing not only a friendship, but the same condition, cystic fibrosis. However, this would say nothing of the profound originality of this series born from the oblique gaze of the author Jean-Christophe Réhel, to which the director Sarah Pellerin responds with a delicious shift full of finesse and raw poetry.
Succession 4, HBO
God, we enjoyed following the failed court of media mogul Logan Roy! A clever, if not guilty, pleasure. It stirs to the very depths, this irresistible series which recounts the dark disputes between the unfortunate descendants of this inflexible patriarch for control of the powerful family conglomerate. Infused with Shakespearean tragedy, this final season succeeds in taking everything up a notch. The finale is to match: brutal, terrible, perfect.
The Last of Us, HBO
The transposition of the popular postapocalyptic video game has given rise to a real television phenomenon. Is right. Behind the relentless advance of cordyceps, this fungus that transforms people into zombies, there are humans, all too human, for whom we have drawn moving narrative arcs, starting with the improbable duo formed by the actors Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey . Special mention to the episode “ Long, Long Time », a true monument of humanity, which resonates like an ode to love.
Good morning Chuck (or the art of harm reduction), Crave
The comedy by Jean-François Rivard and Mathieu Cyr, inspired by the eventful existence of its main performer, the astonishing Nicolas Pinson, addresses a theme rarely explored on our small screen, and which nevertheless touches almost all of us in one way or another. on the other: dependencies. And it does so in a destabilizing and original way, as much in its form, with its sumptuous black and white, as in the way of developing its magic and imperfect heroes, who disappoint, move and make people laugh and think.
Before the crash, season 2, Radio-Canada and Tou.tv
The first season of this “existential thriller” following friends and colleagues, financial sharks, whose professional and personal quests revealed the less glamorous but also the most vulnerable angles, left us waiting for a sequel that calls for some redemption. However, the sequel does not completely avoid this theme, but fortunately thwarts our expectations by taking us even further into the dark corridors of economic and political powers and the moral dilemmas of its characters.
Disobey: the choice of Chantale Daigle, Crave and Noovo
We have rightly underlined the relevance of the miniseries, at a time when the right to abortion is in danger among our neighbors to the South. Beyond the very successful reconstruction of the period and the legal battle, we must salute the way in which the production illustrates the deep reasons which motivated the choice of Mme Daigle to terminate her pregnancy, reasons which had then been somewhat hidden. The lively and convincing performances of Éléonore Loiselle and Antoine Pilon play a large part in the success of this context, and of the series itself.
Beef, Netflix
A banal episode of road rage, followed by a spectacular chase through the streets of the LA suburbs, constitutes the premise of this formidable black comedy bearing the distinctive seal of the A24 production company. But this chronicle of the escalating bravado between a lost entrepreneur of Korean origin and a successful businesswoman of Chinese-Vietnamese origin (Steven Yeun and Ali Wong, perfect) goes far beyond the simple exercise of style to create a fascinating portrait of American society in crisis.
After the flood, Noovo
Appearances are sometimes deceiving, and Mara Joly’s series is no exception. After the flood is indeed a captivating series about Quebec society rather than diversity — yes, the teams in front of and behind the camera are predominantly non-white, so what? As for the brutality, it is less depicted in the mixed martial arts that the characters practice than in a system marked by discrimination. Let us salute in passing the revelation of rough diamonds, like the main actress Penande Estime and Erika Suarez.
Why do you stay, Télé-Québec
Psychological violence within a couple is domestic violence like any other. This documentary series hosted by Schelby Jean-Baptiste dissects in a simple and effective way the warning signs of problematic behaviors that lead to toxic relationships. Because it doesn’t just happen to other people, Why do you stay wishes to raise awareness of a complex problem, and it does so with great clarity thanks to testimonies from personalities, anonymous people and experts.
The Bear, season 2, Disney+
Pure pleasure! The return of The Bear on our screens will have left its mark with its carefully measured audacity and its touching strokes of brilliance. We particularly enjoy seeing Cousin finally find his place and flourish, Carmy showing herself vulnerable, but ruthless, Tina and Marcus following their passion and, of course, witnessing the blossoming of the great chef Sydney. Special mention for the key episode of the Christmas meal at the Berzattos and the delicious participation of fantastic guest actors.
Dead Ringers, Prime Video
Goodbye male gauzeGood morning empowerment. Alice Birch puts the Dead Ringers of Cronenberg up to date in an explosive miniseries. Here, the gynecologist twins Elliot and Beverly Mantle – marvelous Rachel Weisz who succeeds Jeremy Irons – are twins, and rather than showing feminine “monstrosities”, the filmmaker opts for themes as current as consent, women carriers, etc., in a radical aesthetic, but without erasing the twisted side of the original film.
Pamela, A Love Story, Netflix
2023 will have been the year of Pamela Anderson, and the fascinating documentary dedicated to her is no stranger to this. If, by reading extracts from her diaries, she returns to her love story with Tommy Lee, to motherhood and to fame, the Canadian especially shares with us her own account of the affair of the sextape with her ex-husband, in which she was deprived of all rights over her body and her privacy by a perverse media industry in a misogynistic era.
The Diplomat, Netflix
The poster was enticing: a thriller driven by a complex fictional geopolitical intrigue echoing a very real armed conflict (in Ukraine), created by a “showrunner” who learned her lessons on the series The West Wing. This chronicle of an international crisis, the outcome of which seems to depend on an experienced diplomat (Keri Russell, excellent), turns out to be a not at all guilty pleasure, despite some implausibilities and shortcuts. The last episodes and the promises of the sequel to come redeem the whole thing.